Amy Adams in Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day Courtesy of Focus Features

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Amy Adams is not to be confused with Amy Ryan (Oscar nominee for Gone Baby Gone). Nor Isla Fisher (yes, they're both enthusiastic talkers and redheads but it was Fisher, not Adams, who starred in The Wedding Crashers). Nor even Jenna Fischer (of The Office, on which Adams did guest star). If you are at all unsure who Amy Adams is, that will undoubtedly change this year.

The vivacious actress picked up an Oscar nomination for 2004's Junebug but the film — and Adams — remained under the radar. A turn in the Will Ferrell NASCAR comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby introduced Adams to followers of boys-who-don't-grow-up sports comedies. But it was the Disney musical comedy Enchanted, where she played a cartoon princess who emerges from a manhole in Times Square as a flesh-and-blood person that propelled Adams into the popular consciousness. She became a box office star, and subsequently performed a song from the film live for an audience of over 32 million on Oscar night. But she still struggles to comprehend her newfound fame: "I don't really know," she says after gasping in mock surprise that she could even be considered the new It Girl. "I don't feel an impact. I have been working, which is such a grounding experience. So I don't necessarily feel…anything. I don't. It's wonderful to have people responding to your work and [to be] getting really great opportunities. And that is great; I am not going to lie about that." But she claims she is still not a recognizable face — at least not without makeup. Doing press recently in New York, Adams realized that only when she was camera-ready was her cover blown. "Because I normally walk around with very little make-up. And it is funny because people [usually say]: 'Oh, you look sort of like…'" Adams seems aware that there are several young actresses on the rise in Hollywood who bear more than a passing physical likeness to her. But, she laughs, "I was [also] told: 'You look so much like Amy Adams.'"